Sri Lanka, Oct. 1 -- The Government's move to expand the country's forest cover is a well thought out move. In this respect, credit should go to our one time British conquerors, who, nevertheless, took all measures to preserve the country's beauty, which included protecting and preserving our forest cover. Unfortunately, the locals gave scant regard to the importance of protecting the forests but went about on a destruction spree, which has now been checked with the enactment of new laws governing our forests.

According to a news item in this regard, the Government has declared 20 more forests, covering 953,868 hectares, as forest reserves under its Vanaspathi programme, bringing the total number of forests declared as reserves over the ...